Daniel 3 Study Notes
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3:17-18 The king offered Daniel’s friends a second chance to worship the idol, but they persistently refused. The Aramaic imperfect verb yeseziv (“he can rescue”) in this context indicates possibility and not certainty. They were saying that God might deliver them or he might choose not to do so. Their faith in God did not rest on the belief that he would perform a miracle, but that their sovereign God could be trusted. They asserted that if God chose not to deliver them from this punishment but instead allowed them to become martyrs for him, they would still refuse to serve the king’s gods or worship the gold statue. This is one of the strongest examples of steadfast faith in the Bible.
3:19 The enraged king (see also 2:12; 3:13) gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary, an idiom for “as hot as possible.”
3:20-22 If the fire would burn up those who carried the three men, how much more likely would it burn up the men themselves?
3:23 The furnace was built on a small hill or mound with openings at the top and side (see Miller, Daniel, NAC). So the three men fell . . . into the furnace from the top, and the king was able to see four men in the furnace (v. 25) as he looked in through the side opening.
3:24-25 The king saw in the furnace a fourth figure who looked like a son of the gods. This may have been an angel or even a preincarnate appearance of God the Son.
3:26-27 When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar and all his government officials saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men. Not only did the fire fail to burn their hair and clothing, but they did not even have the smell of fire on them. Hebrews 11:34 cites this miracle of faith, referring to those who “quenched the raging of fire.”
3:28-30 After Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were spared, Nebuchadnezzar saw that the God of Israel was greater than all other gods. Even so, he remained a worshiper of many gods, falling short of full devotion of the one and only true God.